In an ocean-themed classroom at a Goleta Valley elementary school, a first-grade teacher presents to a group of students buzzing with curiosity.

For the first-graders, Alejandra Navarro is their “maestra,” or teacher, at El Camino Elementary School, teaching them about nouns, reminding them to write their names on their schoolwork, and being the classroom’s gentle leader. 

For Santa Barbara County, the Goleta Union School District and El Camino Elementary School, the longtime dual-language immersion educator is also their teacher of the year.

The recognition at each level made her a “triple crown winner,” El Camino Elementary School Principal Lorena Chavez told Noozhawk proudly.

The Carpinteria native and UC Santa Barbara alumna will be honored for her win on Saturday during the Santa Barbara County Education Office’s 13th annual Salute to Teachers gala at the Music Academy of the West. 

Navarro has been an educator with the Goleta Union School District for 20 years and at El Camino Elementary School for seven years, where her two sons also attend, she told Noozhawk. 

Navarro said she didn’t always know she wanted to be a teacher despite family, friends and community leaders pushing her in that direction, she said. 

In high school, she tutored kids and volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club.

“I have always enjoyed working with kids, and I have always been good at school, growing up as a student myself,” she said.  

Despite that, she recalled having a “little rebellious” part of her that didn’t want to do what she was told.

She originally entered UCSB as an art major but later switched to a double major in Chicano studies and Spanish. 

“When I was in college, I pretty much came to the realization that there’s a reason why I keep getting drawn to academics and working with children because I really do enjoy it,” she told Noozhawk. “When I saw my life trajectory, I was like, yeah, I can see myself doing this my whole life.”

Switching her degree opened her eyes to her culture, history and prominent Hispanic leaders, which she now teaches in her first-grade classroom.

“This is amazing that they know who Dolores Huerta is,” she said. “I never knew that until I was in college.” 

She also received her master’s degree in education and teaching credentials at UCSB.

El Camino is the only school in the Goleta Union School District with a dual-language immersion program. 

Navarro helped pioneer and support its implementation beginning in 2018 before it launched at the school in 2020.

At El Camino, students in the program begin at transitional kindergarten, where instruction is 90% in Spanish. Each year, the English portion increases until they reach fifth grade, where the two languages are spoken equally. 

The students in the program come from a spectrum of Spanish-speaking abilities.

“We have had a lot of kids that don’t come from Spanish-speaking households, but that are from English-speaking households (and parents are) saying, ‘Oh, our kid translated for us when we went on vacation to Mexico,’” Navarro recalled.

The school has a waitlist of students vying to get a spot in the dual language immersion program.

As a Latina educator and former student at predominantly white schools, dual immersion is especially important to Navarro, who was once a young girl embarrassed by her bilingualism. 

“I had to translate for my mom, and I remember being embarrassed at the parent-teacher conference because, ‘How am I a kid and you can’t do this?’” she recalled.

She hopes the dual-language immersion program empowers students in their bilingual abilities.

“There was a point in my life when I was a child that I didn’t always have that pride,” Navarro said. 

Earlier this week in her classroom, students fluidly switched between the two languages while completing classwork, joking with each other in English about pop star Michael Jackson and Taco Bell before raising their hands to answer questions in Spanish.

Navarro said code-switching might be a challenge for students now, but the payoff is worth it. 

Aside from the dual-language immersion program, Navarro said it’s special seeing the impacts she has on students. 

“All the work is absolutely worth it,” she said. “To make the kids feel comfortable and to see them thriving … that is the prize.”

For El Camino Elementary School Principal Chavez, Navarro’s recognition was a full-circle moment, as she was Chavez’s student teacher 21 years ago.

“I knew from then she was going to go a long way,” Chavez told Noozhawk. 

The selection of the Santa Barbara County teacher of the year is a multistep process. In the fall, all county school districts can submit a nomination and teachers may nominate themselves, according to a press release. 

The county education office teachers network and a selection committee review applications, letters of recommendation, and conduct interviews and classroom observations.

“For me, to have that platform to share the great things that are happening here and about the dual language program (is great),” she said.

Navarro’s recognition at the county level now makes her eligible for consideration for the statewide teacher of the year honor. 

Navarro was recognized for being selected teacher of the year in May during a Santa Barbara County Board of Education meeting. She had found out a couple of days before but was sworn to secrecy, she said. 

She didn’t even tell her two kids, who are fourth- and fifth-grade students at El Camino because “they cannot keep a secret,” she joked.

“It was very humbling,” Navarro told Noozhawk. “It’s just such an honor.”

She said it was extra special to be recognized because she knows how hard other teachers across the Goleta Union School District work each day. 

Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Susan Salcido recognized Navarro as a trusted and visionary leader in public education during the board meeting in May.